Crash Course

Topic: Online Video Courses

Resource of the Week

“Hello learned and astonishingly attractive pupils!” I knew from the first line of the first World History video that I was going to like John Green. At that point I still didn’t realize that he is the same John Green who wrote Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, two wildly popular young adult novels. When he started talking about The Test — as in, “Will this be on The Test?” — I was hooked. His answer to that question alone is worth heading over to watch The Agricultural Revolution, the first video in the Crash Course World History playlist. Seriously. Go watch it. I’ll wait.

Now, aren’t you glad you watched that? Don’t you feel better about homeschooling your kids? Crash Course is a YouTube channel that features crash courses in six subjects: US History, World History, Literature, Chemistry, Ecology, and Biology. John produces the history and literature courses, while his brother Hank, who has his undergraduate degree in biochemistry and his master’s in Environmental Studies, writes the science courses. US History and Chemistry are the current courses, so their content is still being added weekly. The others are complete courses. The courses are each a series of videos with graphics, photos, narration, and plenty of humor. I love that the videos have a Table of Contents in the description (you’ll have to click “More”) that lists timestamps for different topics in the videos. Do preview the videos – they are entertaining but will not be a good fit for every family. For older students, they may be the perfect thing to spark interest in the topics covered. The videos come with optional closed captions in several languages.  https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse